kdakota630 (29.55)

Peter Schiff - A Hell of a Decade

10

In its recent look back on the first ten years of the century, Time Magazine proclaimed the period to be "the decade from hell." The editors made their case based on what they saw as the signature events of the last ten years, notably the ravages of terrorism, failed wars, and a global financial crisis. Taken together, these factors produced an era that Time is convinced will be remembered as one of the low points in our history.

As the media hates to dwell on the negative, the commentary was rife with notes of optimism about pending recovery. It could hardly be accidental that in the very next issue, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was named "Man of the Year" for his supposedly Herculean efforts to keep the economy afloat as we departed the Naughty Aughties. Although Time takes pains that to point out that the "Person of the Year" honor reflects impact rather than adulation, its profile of the Chairman was triumphant.

Even if you believe the "survived the worst/turned the corner" narrative offered by Time, it still should strike anyone as ironic that Chairman Bernanke, a chief architect of the economic problems that surfaced in 2007, should be held in such high esteem.

Anyone who takes financial/economic advise from Time Magazine is not going to be concerned about the details you mention. I suggest you write a letter to Time, which will make no difference, of course. Are you really surprised that a breezy, superficial McNews publication like Time is not reporting economic news in depth? I'm not sure what you expect.

By the way, Hitler was Time's Man of the Year for 1938. It's not about adulation, but rather impact.

Decade from hell? Just in 20th century alone there were several decades much worse than the once passed. I can't believe how short people memories are. Only after 2 decades of unrivaled prosperity and people think these 2 decades (from 80s to 00s) are the norm. I suspect it is rather these decades will be remembered as "golden" for quite some time since portion of the propserity in those decades was borrowed from the future. I am talking about the US only, of course.

If you ask Iraquis, for example, they will probably agree that the last decade was from hell as well as quite a few preceding ones.